What Role Does Prayer Play in My Life?

By Associate Pastor for Prayer Ben Dickerson

“Some people express surprise that professing Christians today are so little like their Lord, but when I stop to think how little time the average Christian today puts into secret prayer, the thing that astonishes me is not that we are so little like the Lord, but that we are as much like the Lord as we are.” (R.  A. Torrey,  The Power of Prayer, p. 21)

Those words were written nearly a hundred years ago.  Do you think things have changed?  Would you suspect people pray more now?…less now?…about the same?  I don't have any statistics, but with the busy lives all of us seem to lead, I suspect very few of us are satisfied with the amount of time we spend in prayer and meditation on the Word of God.

Why doesn't prayer have a place of higher priority for most of us?  I think it's because, although we say we believe in praying and we do pray, deep down, we aren't sure that it really makes a lot of difference in the things that happen in our lives and the lives of others we pray for.  We see praying Christians coping with the same tragic circumstances as non-Christians, and we begin to doubt the power of God will really make a difference in our day to day experience.  The tendency is to believe God is in control and will do what He wants to do whether we pray or not.  Be honest; is that what you tend to think?